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MT: 2012-2013 Family sedan showdown

Ferrari may get all the fan mail and sell countless bedroom wall posters, but in the 66 years since its founding, the Italian automaker has sold just 130,000 cars. Total. Worldwide. Ever. Toyota, in comparison, sells roughly that many Camrys in the U.S. every five months. Honda's Accord and Nissan's Altima are close behind.

Make no mistake: The humble sedans you see here may have to endure morning gridlock, Labrador fur, and the occasional wayward French fry, but they're the power players of America's auto landscape. Indeed, data sifter Experian Automotive says this mid-range class accounted for a whopping 27.4 percent of the U.S. auto market in the first half of 2012. (Crossovers were a distant second, at just over 19 percent.) While the spotlight-hungry 458 Italia is out there screaming and preening and generally looking as restless as Honey Boo Boo in a library, these four-doors are stoically squaring away the driving chores and eking maximum miles from every precious gallon of gas. Average Joes? Nah. They're heroes.

Anyways - My own take is Nissan deserves the crown. After starting this article talking about how bread & butter family sedans are so important and deserve notice MT tosses out all of the important metrics and puts focus on simple German interiors and driving dynamics.

Passat is the clear fun to drive German car, Altima is the best family car IMHO

Last edited by 2.0T_Convert; 10-01-2012 at 12:56 PM.

Sent from my tablet while sipping weak drinks over fancy brunch with a view

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I find it appalling just how much GM ****ed up the Malibu and its intro. I usually defend GM and praise it when it does well, but the Malibu is a dud. Introducing the Eco early was dumb, making it this small was dumb, trying to maintain both it and the Impala was dumb...they just completely ****ed it this this time around. It doesn't even look that great - in person, the tails look big and cheap and the front end is too tall.

I'd love to defend it, and I've tried. But...yeah. The Fusion looks like it costs $10k more. If you were determined to buy a modern domestic family sedan, I'd recommend that or even the Dart - theoretically a size class down but no less spacious.

As for the rest, the Altima seems like it's probably the best mainstream, bread-and-buttah family sedan in the bunch along with the Accord, the Fusion and Passat was designed for guys who actually know what the Nurburgring is, and the rest are cynical bunts.

When I started the article with Malibu dead last my mind wandered to TCL progression from "OMG this is amazballs and will be class leader!" to "it sucks and has ugly tail lights."

I'll eat my words here. I tried my hardest to like it and defend it when it came out, but the proof was in the cramped, oddly proportioned pudding. It's not a horrible car, but it's not a very good one.

I think the Accord deserves the 1st place, and if I wanted something sportier it would have to be the Fusion.
That said VW did really well with the Passat.

Regarding the Camry, while it might deserve the 5th place, and Toyota could have tried harder, they either had a lemon or they are full of it. My sister currently drives a rental Camry SE, and it is very comfortable, quiet and well built. Sure I think the interior looks too cheap, I hate the infotaiment screen, and the exterior while OK is nothing more than a refresh of the last Camry, but from what they wrote you would think it drives/rides like a Yugo, and its far from it.

Passat is the clear fun to drive German car, Altima is the best family car IMHO

I thought the fun to drive German car was the Fusion.

"You can tell right away it was engineered by a German team," says Evans. "Reminds me of the Passat, but even more German. The ride is firm; you feel all the bumps; but it pays back in handling. This thing is built like a tank and feels it in turns, but the body is very well controlled." Febbo agrees. "Suspension tuning is really good." In fact, post-driving, all of us agreed the Fusion's steering is the best of the six--better even than our winner's. "Sportiest car in the group," summed-up Martinez.

I don't put too much stock in Motor Trend -- remember, these are the guys who said the new Explorer was terrible in every possible way, and it's been at least a moderate sales hit.

That being said, I think the Malibu is shaping up to be a problem, which is not good for GM, since they canceled or repositioned all their other mainstream family sedans. I happen to like the interior design myself -- it's not all in keeping with current trends, but I find that refreshing. However, the back seat is going to be a problem and the MPGs are going to be a problem. And the exterior styling has cool details, but it looks disjointed, like it was designed for a different platform and then squeezed and stretched onto this one.

I agree that the Altima should take the crown for best family sedan. A fantastic interior, good powetrain and decent styling. I want to love the Fusion, but it's a porker and I hate those damn capacitive touch buttons.

I've always griped about the Passat's dull, unoriginal interior...but honestly, after seeing the cockpits of most of the other contenders, the Passat's cabin was truly a sight for sore eyes. Truly no-nonsense layout and ergonomics, nicely constructed, and attractive materials. Maybe there is something to the Passat's "Americanization" after all. Now all it needs is a better base engine.

I'm somewhat of the mindset that the Accord should be in first place...the standard equipment for the price, air of elegance and quality, and implied excellent Honda engineering place it back on top of the midsize heap in my opinion, at least for the time being. It truly seems like "best all-around" to me.

With all that said, like most others in here, I'd probably take the Fusion.